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FB disabled my account. Now they want a photo of my “Official ID”

9 points by oblib 5y ago

Alupis 5y ago
Happening right now with the profile I use to manage the Company "Page". Was locked out for 90 days before their support even mentioned I might need to prove identity. This is after they required me to install their App on my phone and enable Location Services, and upload a photograph of my face so they could "verify" it against a profile with zero images uploaded (what?). The thing is... the profile is super old, and was created before Facebook had this "real person" requirement for profiles. So I can't prove identity, because I deliberately made a fake account to do nothing other than manage the company Page. It wasn't against their TOS back then... but apparently that means we're screwed today. We were forced to pull all our advertising budget from their Ads platform during this... how could we advertise our business on a platform we have zero control over our presence on? We can't Post, Delete, Pin, Un-Pin... anything. This sort of black-box, smoky back-room support crap from Facebook is infuriating.
- oblib 5y ago
  That's just awful. My profile has be close to 10+ years old I suppose. And I had some ad accounts I used it to manage. Didn't do a lot of advertising though. I was never really very comfortable with giving FB any more info than I had to, and I'd expect they have more than I know of or want them to. When you read that FB posted a $10billion profit and relate that to their customer service, they suck pretty bad.
jsnell 5y ago
Good grief. What exactly did the author expect would happen when they explicitly told FB that they were of an age where FB can't (legally) offer them the service? And given he did and wants to retract it, just what kind of proof other than an ID would they be willing to provide? There is no outrage to be had here.
- oblib 5y ago
  I didn't express any "outrage" at all. In fact, I summed it up with: "I really don't care much that I can't access my old account, but I do think it's pretty ridiculous that I couldn't block a political ad with just one click and be done with it." You had to make a long leap to pretend you found any "outrage" in what I wrote. But what if one of my grandkids had been sitting with me while I was on FB? Would entering their age as a reason I didn't want this on my FB be a reasonable excuse to answer that "what is your age" question the way I did? And really, shouldn't I just be able to choose not to see a specific ad with a single click of a button?
nixpulvis 5y ago
I understand verification methods for people who lose access to their accounts by means of a forgotten password or other memory fault on the user's end. But to lift a ban, I don't see how ID verification is relevant, unless the OP was still trying to pretend to be 12. Frankly, lying about your age online is so common IDK what to make of this story.
- nixpulvis 5y ago
  ... I don't have a FB account so I don't really know what this looks like, but it seems really strange to me that an ad has a UX for hiding it that can end in a mandatory account ban. That's just asking for trouble.
  - ysavir 5y ago
    The ban didn't come because of the UX. The ban came because the OP told FB that they were 12 years old, and as per Facebook's terms and conditions[0], people under 13 can't use Facebook. Hence the account was shut down. This was basically the OP shooting themselves in the foot. [0]https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms#u_0_s_MQ https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms#u_0_s_MQ
    - nixpulvis 5y ago
      If I was upset enough at an ad I might also try to "hack" my way out of it. Facebook seems to have kindly provided that option.
      - oblib 5y ago
        I can't say I was "upset". Or that I am now. Honestly I just looked at the ad and thought "I don't want to see that bullshit" and started clicking stuff so I wouldn't have to.
        nixpulvis 5y ago
        Don't worry, I'm upset for you.
eh9 5y ago
This from the company that will block you if you don’t use your real name. They take fraud _really_ seriously.
annoyingnoob 5y ago
Maybe you should feel lucky and just stop using Facebook.
- oblib 5y ago
  Yeah, that has occurred to me. lol
TheChaplain 5y ago
Is facebook still relevant these days? I deleted my account in 2008, I think the most useful feature it had for me was the "market"-something, a group or app where one could sell second hand items.

9 points by oblib 5y ago

Happening right now with the profile I use to manage the Company "Page". Was locked out for 90 days before their support even mentioned I might need to prove identity. This is after they required me to install their App on my phone and enable Location Services, and upload a photograph of my face so they could "verify" it against a profile with zero images uploaded (what?). The thing is... the profile is super old, and was created before Facebook had this "real person" requirement for profiles. So I can't prove identity, because I deliberately made a fake account to do nothing other than manage the company Page. It wasn't against their TOS back then... but apparently that means we're screwed today. We were forced to pull all our advertising budget from their Ads platform during this... how could we advertise our business on a platform we have zero control over our presence on? We can't Post, Delete, Pin, Un-Pin... anything. This sort of black-box, smoky back-room support crap from Facebook is infuriating.

oblib 5y ago
That's just awful. My profile has be close to 10+ years old I suppose. And I had some ad accounts I used it to manage. Didn't do a lot of advertising though. I was never really very comfortable with giving FB any more info than I had to, and I'd expect they have more than I know of or want them to. When you read that FB posted a $10billion profit and relate that to their customer service, they suck pretty bad.

jsnell 5y ago

Good grief. What exactly did the author expect would happen when they explicitly told FB that they were of an age where FB can't (legally) offer them the service? And given he did and wants to retract it, just what kind of proof other than an ID would they be willing to provide? There is no outrage to be had here.

oblib 5y ago
I didn't express any "outrage" at all. In fact, I summed it up with: "I really don't care much that I can't access my old account, but I do think it's pretty ridiculous that I couldn't block a political ad with just one click and be done with it." You had to make a long leap to pretend you found any "outrage" in what I wrote. But what if one of my grandkids had been sitting with me while I was on FB? Would entering their age as a reason I didn't want this on my FB be a reasonable excuse to answer that "what is your age" question the way I did? And really, shouldn't I just be able to choose not to see a specific ad with a single click of a button?

nixpulvis 5y ago

I understand verification methods for people who lose access to their accounts by means of a forgotten password or other memory fault on the user's end. But to lift a ban, I don't see how ID verification is relevant, unless the OP was still trying to pretend to be 12. Frankly, lying about your age online is so common IDK what to make of this story.

nixpulvis 5y ago
... I don't have a FB account so I don't really know what this looks like, but it seems really strange to me that an ad has a UX for hiding it that can end in a mandatory account ban. That's just asking for trouble.
- ysavir 5y ago
  The ban didn't come because of the UX. The ban came because the OP told FB that they were 12 years old, and as per Facebook's terms and conditions[0], people under 13 can't use Facebook. Hence the account was shut down. This was basically the OP shooting themselves in the foot. [0]https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms#u_0_s_MQ https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms#u_0_s_MQ
  - nixpulvis 5y ago
    If I was upset enough at an ad I might also try to "hack" my way out of it. Facebook seems to have kindly provided that option.
    - oblib 5y ago
      I can't say I was "upset". Or that I am now. Honestly I just looked at the ad and thought "I don't want to see that bullshit" and started clicking stuff so I wouldn't have to.
      - nixpulvis 5y ago
        Don't worry, I'm upset for you.

eh9 5y ago

This from the company that will block you if you don’t use your real name. They take fraud _really_ seriously.

annoyingnoob 5y ago

Maybe you should feel lucky and just stop using Facebook.

oblib 5y ago
Yeah, that has occurred to me. lol

TheChaplain 5y ago

Is facebook still relevant these days? I deleted my account in 2008, I think the most useful feature it had for me was the "market"-something, a group or app where one could sell second hand items.